Shoe rack



P. JQ S Aug. 29 1933' Filed Nov. 6, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet l Aug. 29, 1933. R JONES 1,924,158

snow RACK I Filed Nov. 6, 1930 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 PM n Patented Aug. 29, 1933 f 1,924,159; a Y

Paul Jones, Whitman, Mass.,.assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. 1., a

Corporation of New Jersey 7 Application Nevember 6, 1930. Serial No. 4933331 7 Claims. (01. ilk-34) This invention relates to shoe racks such as are used for transporting shoes from one part of a,

factory to another and for holding shoes between operations performed upon them.

One type of shoe rack which has been extensively used in the past comprises a series of spaced shoe-supporting dowels or pins, the edge portions of adjacent pins being arranged to engage and support opposite sides of a shoe carried bottom side up in the rack. A shoe carried in a rack of the type referred to makes substantially line contacts with theedge portions of the pins and,

because of the irregularities of the surfaces of the shoes, the latter engage the pins over small 'iareas only with-the result that the entire weight of a shoe is concentrated upon correspondingly small portions of its upper. This frequently results in denting or otherwise marring the upper.

An object of the present invention isto provide an improved shoe rack which will c'ially adapted to carry shoes without likelihood of damaging the uppers of the shoes. Accordingly, and as illustrated, the invention provides arack comprising shoe supporting members or portions of pins having surfaces for engaging opposite sides of the upper of a shoe positioned betweenthe surfaces, and in which the surfaces of thepins are inclined at different angles to a plane passing throughthe pins in order closely to engage opposite sides of the shoe. shown, the pins are arranged in series and the shoe-engaging surfaces of the pins are substantially fiat,some of the surfaces being so angularly disposed that they will closely engage {inner the uppers of shoes carried by the surfaces and others of the surfaces being differently disposed angularly to engage closely outer portions of thevuppers of the shoes. By the use of the construction above indicated, shoes are carried with the opposite side portions of their uppers resting upon comparatively large areas of the supporting surfaces ,with the result that theweight of each shoe is distributedoverfcorrespondingly'large areas of contact, thereby avoiding such contact of the upperswith supporting members as would indent the uppers to the extent of injuring them. This construction thus makes it possible to support shoes having uppers made of delicate leather without danger of marring the shoes.

Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying .55.. drawings and will be pointed out'in the claims.

In the drawings,

comprises a metal be espe- V v Preferably, and as.

r of each of the pins 24 Fig. l is a perspective structed according to the invention; and

- Fig.2 is a perspective rack, looking down upon approximately thereto and illustratingthe manner in which shoes are carried upon the'pins.

As illustrated in the drawings,

view of a shoerack conthe shoe rack; frame 10 inwhich are secured view of a portion of'the V 2 the pins at an angle of; 001";

a plurality of wooden shelves'l-2 each comprising a back-rail 14 and a central support .16extending parallel to each other and connected at their ends to bars l8which in turn are-held inthe' frame 10 by clips 20; The members-1:4 and-16' carry a plurality of shoe-supportingmembers 22 and 24 which areillustrated as pins the axes of which lie in substantially the same plane and the inner ends of which are turned down to form t shank portions 26 whichextendthrough and arej rigidly securedto the members 14 and 1 6; The. pins 22 and 24 are arranged .in serieswith twol adjacently disposed pins 22' alternating Wit/11,9...

single pin 24 throughout the'length of the rack,

except at each end-thereof where only a single pin 22 is used. :The'spaces between eachpin-24 and the next adjacent pins 22 upon each side thereof are'such as to provide for the insertion of a pair, of shoes, bottoms up, with opposite sides of the upper of each shoe resting respectively upona flat side surface 28 of a pin22 and a fiat side surface 30 of apin 2 i l 8511- The outer'end of each ofthe pins 22 is substan tially rectangular in cross-section and is positioned with one of its fiatside surfaces, namely surface 28, which portion of the pin, facing upwardly vand disposed at an inclination to the the axes of the pins 22 30, which constitute the shoe-engaging portions constitutes the' shoe-engaging of the pin, face'upwardly and extend at an in- I clination to, the. plane referred to.

The anglebetween the upwardly disposed surfaces 30 of them'embers 24 corresponds approximately to the angle-between the side surfaces.

v style of shoes to be'carrieds positioned with their bottoms in the same plane of two shoes, of the and with the inner portions of the uppers adjacent. The anglebetween adjacentupwardly facfing flat surfaces'28 of members 22 similarly corre sponds to the angle between the outer side surfaces of uppers bottoms in the same plane and their outer surfaces adjacent, and, since the outer portions of sat u 00* of shoes positioned with their plane passing through and 24. The outerlend. substantially triangular in cross-section with the apex of the triangle uppermost with the result that the flatside surfaces:

the uppers of shoes are generally more flatly curved relatively to the bottom of the shoe than are the inner portions of the upper, the angle between adjacent surfaces 28 has been correspondingly made greater than that between surfaces 30. In other words, the surfaces 30 extend at a greater inclination to the plane passing through the axes of the pins than do the surfaces 28. A shoe, such as shoe 32 (Fig. 2), is carried in the rack bottom up with the inner side portions of the upper of the shoe engaging the fiat surface 30 of the member 24, and the outer surfaces of the upper of the shoe engaging the flat surface 28 of the adjacent member 22. Since the inclinations of the surfaces 28 and 30 are such as to correspond closely to the sides of the upper which they engage, the shoe will make contact over considerable areas of the surfaces and will,

' accordingly, rest evenly upon them.

The distance between each of the pins 24 and adjacent pins 22 is such that the largest shoes to .be carried between such pins will ride sufficiently low upon the pins that there will be no likelihood of contact between adjacent shoes. However, inorcler. to effect economyin the size of the rack and particularly in the length thereof, adjacent members 22 and 24 are placed close together but sufficiently spaced so that shoes of the maximum size to becarried will not engage each other. For the same reason adjacent members 22 are placed close together; the distances between the top edges of such members being great enough so that the outward bulges of adjacent shoes in contact with such members will not engage each other. In practice, it has been found that shoes .can'be carried with their inner edge portions. very close together, without any likelihood of their contact, .upon adjacent surfaces "ment relatively to'the pins,

as new and desire to secure such assurfaces 30.. It is because of. this that each of the pins '24 is provided with two shoeengaging surfaces 30, thus effecting economy in manufacture.

-'In the operation of the rack, shoes are placed bottoms up upon the pins 22 and 24 with the upper of each shoe in engagement with adjacent surfaces 28'and 30 in the manner above described, the shoes of themselves sinking down into the troughs formed by the pins until the sides of the uppers of the shoes rest evenly upon surfaces of the pins and the toe portions of the foreparts rest upon the supports 15. In such positions the shoes will besecurely held against lateral moveand contact between adjacent shoes, which might tend to injure the uppers, is prevented. Since the side surfaces of the shoes rest entirely upon the flat surfaces of the pins, there will beno likelihood of the shoes being marred byyengagement with edges of supporting members, and, since the weight of each shoe carried willbe distributed over considerable areas of the upper, the likelihood of so indenting the upper as to damage an upper formed of delicate leather is practically eliminated.

Having described my invention, what I claim by Letters Patent of the United States is: V

1. A shoe rack comprising a plurality of shoesupporting pins having flatsurfaces arranged in pairs and inclined for engaging closely inner portions of the uppers of shoes carried in the rack, and a plurality of shoe-supporting pins having flat surfaces arranged in pairs alternating with the first-mentioned pairs of surfaces and differently inclined for. engaging closely outer portions of the uppers of shoes carried in the rack.

2. A shoe rack comprising a plurality of shoesupporting pins arranged in series and having shoe-engaging surfaces arranged in pairs throughoutthe series with one of the surfaces of a pair of adjacent surfaces extending at an inclination to a plane passing through the pins closely to engage the outer portion of the upper of a shoe positioned between the adjacent surfaces and the other of the adjacent surfaces extending at a different inclination to the plane closely to engage the inner portion of the upper of the shoe.

3. A shoe rack comprising a plurality of shoesupporting members having shoe-engaging surfaces arranged in pairs with the surfaces of each pair of surfaces extending at an inclinationto each other for closely engaging'the inner portions of the uppers ofadjacent shoes carried in the rack, and a plurality of shoe-supporting 7 members having shoe-supporting surfaces arranged in pairs between-successive pairs of the first-mentioned pairs of surfaces and in which portions of the uppers of adothers ofthe pairs of surfaces being disposed at a different inclination to each other for close- 1y engaging the outer side sitioned in the rack closely adjacent but out of contact. I

supporting pins arranged in series and having shoe-engaging surfaces arranged with the alternate surfaces throughoutthe series extending at different inclinations to the pins.

6. A shoe rack comprising a series of shoe supporting pins the axes of which lie substan-' tially in the same plane, the pins having shoeengaging surfaces parallel to the axes and so arranged that the-angle formed between any pair of adjacent surfaces throughout the length of the rack is different from the angle formed between either of thesurfaces of the pair of sur'-' faces and the next adjacent surface.

'7. A shoe rack comprising a plurality of 'shoesupporting pins having flat shoe-engaging surfaces arranged in pairs with the surfaces of each pair of surfaces converging upwardly toward each other, the-surfaces of alternate pairs of sur faces being inclined toward each other at an angle greater than the the surfaces of'each of the other pairs of sure faces.

' .PAUL JONES.

portions of shoes poi 5. A shoe'rack comprising a pluralityof shoea plane passing through angle included between 

